Category: Personal Consumption

The impact of technology and advanced logistics makes China one of the most advanced countries in the online shopping sector, where the ecosystem created by Alibaba and Wechat is unique in the world. Italy remains behind not only on these two dimensions, but also because of regulatory aspects, such as limitations on the transfer of funds and the lack of consumer confidence.

According to China Economic Review, China’s savers, who sock away cash like almost no one else in the world, are racking up more debt as borrowing options proliferate. Ninety-four percent of consumers used a credit or loan in the past year, up from 85% two years ago. This finding confirms the results of my ongoing research on consumption and saving behavior, following up from the work of Friedman and Modigliani. In China, it appears we are in front of a Life Cycle Hypothesis to the n-power, and debt now goes up even in the private sector.